May 2016 Newsletter

May 2016 Newsletter

A Note from Your President

NSA Chapters are like any other group (Business, Charity, Professional, Church, Government, etc.). All groups desire to be effective, as measured by ongoing performance and results.

The reality is that organizations don’t stand static in place. They’re either spiraling upwards to greater momentum, engagement, and results – or spiraling downwards to more cynicism, apathy, and staleness.

As we search for answers to why an organization is spiraling upward or downward, we often mistakenly look to judge individual contributors, in regards to whether or not they appear:

Committed – as seen by expressions of ownership, engagement, and passion

CreativeÂ – as seen by proactive experimentation, and finding better ways to accomplish tasks

Competent – as seen by doing what needs to be done to achieve results

Many managers have been led to assume that some people have “it” and some don’t, and that their primary job is to observe, pass judgment, and “call it a day”.

But leadership doesn’t live there. Leadership is about making things better, and you don’t accomplish that by simply evaluating people. And worse, the evaluation process is often based on the assumption that “what we see today” tells all we need to know about a person’s potential for performing competently in the future.

Performance is a result of people expressing competence in the doing of work. And expressions of competence are a result of the commitment and creativity that is triggered through true collaboration. Collaboration (or Involvement) is the “trigger” that sets into motion the rewards we seek in our organizations – plus the messiness that some prefer to avoid. And the truth is that we only trigger true collaboration when we believe in the overall process.

Imagine a new-born baby infant. Nothing we can “see” tells us that this new little person has the potential to become a well-adjusted, competent, and creative adult. In the beginning, they all look like they just might drool for the rest of their life. However, beliefs are the difference maker. By believing in unseen potential, parents create the right environment – and the conditions that allow this little person the chance to grow into the best possible human being.

That’s leadership. We first believe in the potential of people, and pull the trigger of Collaboration, which initiates the process and the conditions for competence. By pulling the trigger we invite people to participate in the process, to truly speak their mind (good or bad), and to be a real partner in the important work of the group.

That triggering of Collaboration then introduces:

Conflict – the productive mixing of ideas (not ugly confrontation). It can feel messy, and awkward for those who appreciate harmony and simplicity. Some groups simply “go through the motions” and squelch productive conflict through bureaucratic rules, communication filtering, and outright diversion. However, when we engage in productive conflict, which is simply allowing people to have a legitimate voice and place in the process, we get…

Creativity – new ideas, plus old ideas reframed, plus new combinations of old ideas not previously considered. And these can come from anybody, senior/junior, new/old, expert/novice. In fact, great insights often come from those who are least invested in the status quo (which is why managers can sometimes unwittingly be blockers of new ideas). But, with productive conflict and unpredictable creativity, we also get…

Commitment – which is a direct result of the amount of involvement in the process. You can’t scare people into commitment, nor buy it, nor trick people into it. Commitment is only achieved as a by-product of the level of involvement in the process. Many managers fail because they desire commitment from their people, but are unwilling to truly involve people in the process.

When I completed the excellent NSA Chapter Leadership Institute (CLI) in November 2014, I decided that my primary objective was to believe and act in ways to help create the conditions for more involvement in our already-great NSA North Texas Chapter. I asked each of our 2015-16 Board Members to find ways to involve more people in the process through shadowing and special projects. Essentially, invite people to participate, and help them be successful in whatever type of activity they wish to engage.

Even more than expected, I have been so pleased to see us as a Chapter continue to thrive – maintaining our excellent existing processes, experimenting with new ones, and providing space for our incredible local talent to get further involved. I can personally feel the “drum-beat” of a vibrant organization. We don’t always get it right, but we certainly get it right much more often than not.

And those are the marks of successful organizations – positive beliefs, involvement, experimentation, adaptation, competence, performance and celebration. And, you can bring these wonderful benefits to your business, and other organizations. We simply need to believe in the existence of natural Competence, and courageously pull the trigger of Collaboration. Stay strong to encourage productive ideological Conflict, and reap the rewards of amazing Creativity, Commitment, and Competence.

Then, you too will be on the right path to enjoy Your Best Year Yet.

April Meeting Shout-Outs

Ed Foreman, CSP, CPAE – for his energetic and inspirational ED (Foreman) Talk on how to have a great day everyday – by appreciating the virtual cycle of how we Think, Act, and Feel. Now you know why we named this new series in his honor. Amazing.

Sylvie di Giusto – for her humble and pioneering session on Profitable E-Learning Programs. In the Spirit of NSA, she took us “behind the scenes” of her amazing business. And in a gracious afternoon session benefiting the NSA Foundation, she took us even deeper to help us take specific action. Few have given so much, and we proudly gave her in return her first real horseback ride at the Flying Double H Ranch owned by 2015-16 Director of Administration Ron Hoesterey. A great weekend with the Battle of the Accents!

Tim Marvel – For capturing dozens of spectacular photos. Now the day is unforgettable.

Nikki Nanos – For bringing US a cake on the day we were celebrating HER achievement of NSA National Professional Qualified Member status. Yum!

Let’s Hit the Gas

Here are our last two Chapter meetings for the 2015/16 NSA Year. Come join us, and let’s keep progressing toward the goal of achieving 100 National Professional Qualified Members by the end of calendar year 2016. We’re getting close to 90 already!

Sat, 14-May –Ed Rigsbee, CSP – Successful Speaking with Associations

plus ED (Foreman) TALK with Christine Cashen, CSP, CPAE

Sat, 11-Jun — Walter Bond, CSP, CPAE – Captivate Your Audience

plus ED (Foreman) TALK with Gary Rifkin, CSP, 2015 Cavett Winner

plus 2015-16 Year-End Party (stay tuned for more details)

Watch our Facebook group and Speaker.org for more information — plus our final Labs Sessionsfor this year (and All-Access Pass holders get in free!).

Influence 2015 in July

If you haven’t registered for the NSA Influence 2016 Conference in July, time is running out in order to get the Early Bird discount. Register by May 9th at http://www.nsaspeaker.org/attend/convention/ to take advantage of a $150 savings!

Partnership event with Societies of Association Executives: full-day pre-chapter meeting, in conjunction with local society, in which Ed will deliver his workshop for association executives: Today’s Missing Link for Explosive Growth. This is to get sister organizations partnering with your chapter and your members connected to the people that can hire them.

Pre or Post (additional value) Geographical Mastermind Group Development workshop for upper-level speakers; including the “how to” and actually experience how it works.

No question about it, today’s business environment is harsh! First…Positioning and second…Selling is the name of the. If you are reluctant to make the phone calls necessary to succeed in the speaking business, how will you survive? Quite frankly these are the biggest challenges in the speaking industry. As a matter of fact, this is why we fail in the business of professional speaking. So, what can we do about it?

Here’s a personal message from Ed Rigsbee, CSP, CAE:

“I use, and therefore teach a different approach. I have discovered a speaker’s business development method that can be implemented today. This can be achieved without any fancy technology or need for an accelerated learning curve. The approach that I have successfully used since 1988, when I joined NSA, is to build relationships with association editors, give them my content freely and allow them to become the relationship bridge to association meeting planners. This is an idea that your members can immediately implement, especially for those with call reluctance challenges.

The great thing about paid speaking at association meetings is that your audience is mostly comprised of business owners that have also have the ability to book you to speak for their company meetings and training needs.

My system in summary: write about what you know, talk to association editors and give it away, get paid to showcase at association meetings, and leverage your talk to speak at corporate events-not a bad lifestyle. And, most importantly-this method is immediately implementable, without spending any money.

My presentation is loaded with the: who, what, when, where, and how for developing association business. And as an added bonus, if additional time is available, I will also teach your members how to write the kind of articles that will actually get published.

Ed Rigsbee, CSP, CAE

Â About the Speaker:

Ed Rigsbee, CSP (Certified Speaking Professional), CAE (Certified Association Executive), is the ROI Guy; obsessed with helping you to give and receive more return on investment (ROI) in everything that you do. He will help your organization to elevate your business relationships from ordinary to extraordinary; in service, results and profitability.

Ed is the President of Rigsbee Enterprises, Inc., established in 1981. He is recognized internationally for his expertise in the areas of strategic alliance development and implementation and non-profit organization member recruitment and retention.

Ed is also the president and executive director of the Cigar PEG, Inc., an IRS recognized 501 (c) (3) non-profit public charity. The organization he co-founded in 1999, starting as an annual fund raising party at the National Speakers Association’s annual convention. To date, this organization has donated almost $400,000 to; the National Speakers Association Foundation’s Professional Speakers Benefit Fund, the Hereditary Disease Foundation’s Laura’s Hope project, the Cardiac Arrhythmias Research & Education (C.A.R.E.) Foundation, and others. In 2011, the Cigar PEG expanded to include international events.

With 5 books and more than 2,000 published articles to his credit, Ed continues to be a regular contributor to business, trade and professional publications globally. He has been an adjunct professor for both the Universities of California at Santa Barbara and California Lutheran University. He has also worked with the Dun & Bradstreet Foundation, delivering full-day; sales, customer service, team building, and management seminars across the USA. Ed has traveled to Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, delivering multi-day strategic alliance workshops to eager business leaders and professional development workshops to established and emerging professional speakers.

you, the speaker – Take a break. Clear your head.

One hard rule I always follow – until now – is that I never tell audiences in my speeches anything about myself that would seem to put me above them.

I don’t ever want to brag – or come off that way.

Once I heard a speaker mention his 700 series BMW. That meant he wasn’t like me. I drive a 13-year-old car with 280,000 miles on it. That one little unnecessary detail derailed any emotional bonding he was trying to build. I don’t relate to one percenters.

As an example, I’ve never mentioned in public — until now — that I have a swimming pool, for instance, because many Texans aren’t lucky enough to have such a wonderful way to beat the heat.

That’s why I feel especially squeamish about the next four words I am about to share only with you: I went to Hawaii.

No, no. I’m not saying that to brag. I’m saying that only to relate it to a subject that I know you, the speaker are as interested as I am.

Stoking the creative process.

Karen and I planned it on the cheap. Virgin America is locked in a price war with American Airlines. So Virgin tickets were half the cost of American’s. Plus, if you stay, as we did, at the Airport Marriott in Maui, you don’t pay all those excessive “resort” fees.

Before we left, Karen kept telling me, “You’re going to clear your head. When you come back you’ll feel renewed.” She said it a lot.

We were there a week. I’m not much of a beach person. But I enjoyed driving around the island, watching the whales come up for air and learning about the historic culture of Maui.

Did you know, for instance, that the last remaining sugar plantation in Hawaii is closing? That’s 675 jobs on Maui. The reason? Mexico cancelled its regular sugar order.

I knew nothing about sugar, but after an hour in the Sugar Museum, I felt sweet on the subject. (Sorry.)

Where most tourists go off to activities such as diving or hiking, I dragged Karen to a civic auditorium to hear the mayor of Maui deliver his annual State of the County Address on live television. We were the only tourists in an auditorium filled with Maui’s elite. I learned a lot about a world quite different than mine.

My point is this: I haven’t had a pure do-nothing vacation in years. Every time I go away, it’s for a speech. This was different.

My wife is right. (As always). My head is clear. Getting away is crucial to the creative process. I let that slide.

What are you planning to do this summer for yourself to clear your head?

If you don’t have a good answer, then now you know why I mention this.

In a surprise, it turned out to be the best investment I could make for my creative business.

The author and his wife during their head-clearing, whale-watching trip in Hawaii.

AprilÂ Meeting Recap

Sylvie’s principle business is teaching and coaching people to project the right image for success.She began with a brief message to us.

We make judgements about people in the first 7 seconds we see them.Once that impression is made, we are guilty of confirmation bias.That is, we continue to observe and accept the observations that confirm our first impression while rejecting those which contradict it.People judge us in four areas:

Digital Footprint: we look to see what we can learn online about a person we are going to meet and begin to form our impression from what we see.

Body Image appearance: what we look like, our body, our dress, counts in the first impression

Behavior body language: How we carry ourselves, the way we greet people, our posture all contribute to the first impression

Communication approach: Our speaking style and mannerisms are evaluated and become a part of the first impression.

2.Â Sylvie works in three basic areas:

B-C as a coach in a 1 on 1 environment

B-B as a speaker to corporate audiences

B-C as a trainer of other image consultants

3. Before we start developing e-learning platforms, we need to clearly understand the parts of our business that we want to “automate” and who our audience will be.

4. Sylvie gave us tools that she uses throughout her presentation.One is Prompt Smart, a teleprompter app that costs $11.99 for a mobile device.It is a teleprompter that is controlled by your voice so it paces itself to you, not the other way around.

5. She also uses Adobe Captivate and recommends it.With it she records a PowerPoint with a voice over and then exports it as a video.

6. Sylvie recommends that our proposals have three levels of offer

Cheap: You can buy this but it is obviously not what you really want

Good Option: This is the option that 90% of clients will purchase

Too Expensive: If money is no object and you always have to have the very best, pick this one.

7. When working with e-learning content, Sylvie does not touch their technology.She sells licenses for her content.

8. Be easy to work with and have a simple contract.Corporate clients have lawyers that will make closing the deal hard with a complicated contract.

9. Passive income only becomes passive after a lot of work has been done to create and package it.

10. Have what you do in your company name.

11. Sylvie packages her content into courses that are so complete the clients rarely take advantage of the end of course personal Skype consultation.They already have the content they paid for.

12. Sylvie uses quotes on social media to maintain presence. She has the quotes put in fancy frames using Fivver.

If you are an All Access Pass holder and you want to get a better feel for the content that Sylvie presented on e-learning systems, please log on and watch her video. As I wrote from my notes, I did not find enough notes on that content.

Nikki Nanos spoke at the “Women of Visionary Influence Conference” in April.

Melinda Marcus gave her first TED Talk at TEDex Plano on March 25th.

Linda Swindling will be on ABC’s Good Morning DC.

You Get a Do-Over

byÂ Sandi Leyva

Have you ever sat in an NSA-NT meeting and thought to yourself, “I’d love to hear the speaker say that again?” Have you ever missed a chapter session you were just dying to go to?

If you answered yes to either question and you are an All Access Pass Holder, then you’re in luck! We now have videos of all of the amazing chapter meetings we’ve had this year ready for you to download and watch over and over again to your heart’s content.

All you need to do is go to our new portal, https://nsant.wildapricot.org and login using your email address and the password we sent to you on February 13, 2016. (If you don’t have it, email support@sandismith.com and I’ll get it for you.) Then click on the 2015-2016 Library and behold the wonders of this year’s programs! Both audio and video file downloads are available.

If you’re not an All-Access Pass Holder, you can still benefit. Members and Candidates can access prior year chapter recordings, annual convention material, and the DCVB list.

So please make use of this awesome new portal and give us your feedback on how to make it better.

Chapter Meeting Location

For the 2015-16 meeting schedule, we’ll be meeting a the Hilton Garden Inn located at: